Nick's First Blog Entry - A little dissapointing...

Thus far I must say that I am a little disappointed by the responses (or lack thereof) by our most devoted fans. I am not sure what you are doing… maybe watching the NBA…still recovering from the election…or you are simply speechless by the attempt of Kevin Caloia to grow a mullet.

Anyway, many of you may not be familiar with my role within the organization, so I will divulge a little bit and give you a very brief history.

I sent a resume on a whim and managed to be offered a position. (Note to any future intern candidate: Do NOT list “shopping” as an activity on your resume, you’ll never live it down!!!) I started in the summer of 2005 as an Operations Intern. What made this an interesting summer besides interning for the Mallards were the 45 minute drives to and from Whitewater everyday, where I attended college. So typically we would start the day at 8:30 a.m., work until midnight, and if you do the math, I wouldn’t get home until almost 1:00 a.m. and then I’d have to get up at about 6:30 a.m. to get ready and be out the door by 7:30ish. Some nights I don’t know how I survived the drive (dozing off multiple times) but thank God I managed!

Anyways, Brian Dodge (the other Operations Intern….I love you Dodge!) and I held down the fort as far as ballpark maintenance--painting, building fences, painting and oh, did I mention painting? As a point of reference, we now have FOUR Operations interns running the show. Apparently I impressed Vern enough for him to offer me a full-time spot. So here I am today in the position of an Operations and Group Sales Manager.

My main responsibility during the winter months is making cold calls to companies in and around Madison in selling tickets for group outings and to renew clients from previous summers. So if anyone is interested in holding a group outing please give me a call or you can find my email address on the contacts page and I’ll happily give you the rundown of our options. My other responsibility right now is in putting together our merchandise line for next spring. I have been handling souvenirs the past two summers and have received a lot of suggestions. I try my best to meet what the people have called for, but I am always looking for new ideas and suggestions. So if there is something you would like to see or something we no longer offer, but you would like to see again, please let me know!

I also wanted to let everyone know due to economic circumstances we will not be having kiosks at either West or East Towne malls, I do however encourage you to check out the “Duck Wear” link on the website for all your holiday gift ideas. I almost forgot we are having a great sale on all Game Day hats that are now only $14 (marked down from $20)….What a freaking steal!!!!!

That should wrap up my first post. I look forward to all the responses and suggestions that will flood my inbox like the swallows of Capistrano. Oh, I will also break the trend of throwing one of my fellow employee’s under the bus…..Cheers!